Gardena had a chance to get three points when kicker Omar Villarreal made a field goal from more than 30 yards out in the first quarter.
However, the officials ordered a brutal penalty on the field goal. Gardena coach Monty Gilbreath had a choice to make. He accepted the penalty, continuing his drive which ultimately ended without scoring.
The Panthers never recovered offensively Friday night. Carson defeated Gardena 23-7 at home, handing the Panthers (7-1, 1-1) their first loss of the season in Marine League play. Carson held Gardena scoreless on offense while the Colts (5-3, 2-0) totaled less than 100 yards of offense themselves.
“We didn’t play very well — overall — a few times, and we made some mistakes tonight as well,” Carson coach Michael Christensen said. “But I was proud of how we stayed after that and played physical defense.”
Colts sophomore quarterback Chris Fields III and senior running back Kameryn Hurst scored rushing touchdowns to help the Colts lead 20-0 at halftime. Carson’s defense held Gardena’s standout running back, Xavier Grant, to just three yards on three carries. Senior running back Myles Mason – nursing an injury – played only defense for Gardena.
Hurst finished the game with 62 yards on 13 carries, playing with a banged ankle that he picked up on a tackle in the first quarter. On defense – playing as a defensive back – he threw an interception, one of three against Gardena quarterback Isaiah Kim.
Hurst helped lead the Colts secondary that held the Panthers scoreless in the second half. Troy Taulua and Michael O’Dell had Carson’s other interceptions.
“We knew it was going to be a very physical game, and we knew what their offense was like last year,” Hurst said of the Colts. “Our defense, we had to step up.”
Gardena’s only points came from a Chase Johnson pick. Johnson left the game in the second quarter, when he was carried off the field — after Fields’ four-yard touchdown run — with an air thrown over his left leg.
Just like when he denied a field goal in favor of a penalty, Gilbreath said Gardena was refusing to play against Narbonne next week – signaling another forfeit for the Times’ No. 1 team of the City Section football standings. .
Narbonne’s rivals in the Marine League have withdrawn against the Gauchos in the last three weeks. The coaches – including Christensen and Gilbreath – alleged in a letter that Narbonne violated league rules.
Neither the Los Angeles Unified School District nor the city section’s commissioner, Vicky Lagos, had ruled on the allegations as of Friday evening.
When asked if next week’s game against Narbonne was still up in the air or up in the air, Gilbreath said the game “wasn’t up in the air.”
In a follow-up question, when asked if that meant the game wasn’t happening, he answered bluntly.
“It’s not happening.”
Christensen struck a similar tone, dodging a question about his team’s game against Narbonne in two weeks.
“Right now our focus is on the fact that we are going to take advantage [the win] for the next day and we are going to watch a movie tomorrow morning,” he said.
This story was originally published in Los Angeles Times.
